Studying in
the United States of America is really different when comparing how we study in
Finland. I’ve been studying in Cedar Ridge high school in Round Rock, Texas for
one semester now. First of all, you have to go to high school in the USA, in
Finland it’s optional. We have the same schedule for the 1st semester
and when the 2nd semester comes you usually have the same schedule
that you used to have. In Finnish high school our schedule changes 5 or 6 times
a year! We have this 6 weeks system: we get our grades in end of every six week
to see if we’re failing. We also get report cards three weeks before the six
weeks is about to end, that we can see are we failing that six week. Sounds
complicated, but when you get in to it, it really isn’t. So basically we get updates from our grades
all the time. The school gets money from the government from every kid that
comes to school every day here in the US. When someone doesn’t show up, it
means that the school doesn’t get their daily money from that student for that
day. That’s why in Texas you can be absent only 10 days for the whole year. In
our school we have this AB-day system: every other day is different. Both days
have four different subjects, so you have 8 subjects all together. I’ve heard
that they made this system, so football players have more time to work out
during school time. Football is really big in Texas so they wanted that kids
would have more time to practice. Of course that’s not what they say to us, but
that’s probably a really big reason to that system like one of my teachers
said.

Finland education level is really high and
that’s why school feels so much easier here in Texas. We take a lot of notes
and at the same time the teacher talks. We can’t really talk to each other
while we’re in class, because we don’t have time for that. In Finland it’s all
different. We do take notes, but teacher gives us time to write it all down
before telling it. Finnish students read things from books, American students
not really. We don’t have school books here, or we do have them in some
classes, but we don’t really use them. The books aren’t our own, so we can’t
take them home. In Finland we use books all the time. One other big difference
is the exams. In Finland we do essays and short answers in every exam, it doesn’t
matter what subject it is. In Texas every exam is multiple-choice! We don’t
really do essays and short answers in exams, expect in English I think there is
a short answer part. Even math exams are multiple-choices, so you can check your
answer if you’re wrong.

I feel like
in here we study just to pass the six weeks and semesters and teachers just
want us to pass their subjects. We get reviews before exams and that’s usually
everything you need to know in the exam. They teach us how to take exams and
that’s all that they talk about. They know what we need to know in exams and
that’s all that they tell us. Rest of the stuff doesn’t matter and maybe that’s
why people don’t succeed so much in here than in Finland. In Finland we don’t
study for school – we study for life. In Finland we learn things that matters
and what we’re going to need in our lives after we graduate. That is maybe the biggest
difference in the school systems between USA and Finland. I’m really blessed that
I’ve had the opportunity to be educated in Finnish school system and I’m really
proud of that.